I recently let my Lipkins Sartory model bow go at the ISB a few weeks ago. I have had many offers in the past but I wouldn't sell it. A past customer and acquaintance of mine came by my display and played it for a bit. Like he did with another Bow I had before this one, he fell in love with it. I told him about the offers I had turned down in the past and just said, "make me an offer I can't refuse"! So, he did. Playing it full time in an Orchestra will keep the Bow warmed up for sure.

Besides the Lipkins I was also using a few other bows I had, one in my collection for several years, a beautiful Fuchs and also an Italian bow I just got that was made by Tamburini da Pesaro who apprenticed for and worked with the late great Giovanni Lucchi of Cremona.

Well, while at the ISB show, first the Tamburini sells and the next day, my Fuchs was sold.

So, left in my collection were two other Italian bows, one by Slaviero and a bow by Proietti, both recently imported from Italy, a beautiful old Roger Lotte bow from Mirecourt c.1958 and my Eibert Sartory model I've had for about 15 years.

The Lotte is with me for less than a year and I had never used the bow outside of testing it. One of my friends at the ISB was playing it and remarked what a beautiful, smooth and powerful sound the bow pulled. That was the first time I heard it played as it was sitting in a bow case since I got it.

After the ISB show, I was trying the Proietti bow with one of my basses and was thinking I would switch to it being that my Lipkins and Fuchs are now sold. Then I revisited the Slaviero and thought that was a lil better for an orchestra sound. But, lastly, I played the Lotte and and discovered this 'sleeper' in my closet and was able to pull more sound from it than either of the two Italian bows. Testing between the 3 bows with various techniques like bouncing between two strings like with some Verdi pieces, I found that it was the best bow of the group.

So, the Lotte is my new Orchestra bow with the other two Italian bows as my back-ups depending on the music.

After further testing. The Slaviero is the bow that is more versatile for me over the Lotte. The Proietti has been sold.

And now.. The Eibert has been sold as well. The only two boys I currently own and use are the Slaveiro and the Lotte. I switch back and for the between them depending on the bass, strings, music and most of all, how I feel.